Psych – Episode 4-5 Review

Never before has Psych actually made me yell at the TV. This yell was not because the episode was bad but because of the chance that McNab could be dead. My fear thankfully only lasted a few seconds as McNab is alive and well, despite a few missing things. Overall I thought it was a great episode. The running gag of Shawn and the portable phone had me laughing to tears throughout the episode. Seriously, who hasn’t misplaced one of those things before?

Flashback: 1989. Shawn is practicing throwing a baseball with his father. Shawn’s first throw is flawless. Then his second throw goes through the windows of a truck. So begins Shawn’s case of the yips.

Present: The police department is out at a sport’s bar celebrating a baseball game victory and McNab’s birthday. Shawn is upset that his food has not come yet and ends up going to the manager. Just as he is about to talk to him he notices a man entering the bar armed with a gun. Shawn rushes back to the table to alert Lassiter of the situation but his warning is cut short when McNab’s cake comes and everyone starts singing Happy Birthday. The guy is coming towards them and Shawn cannot wait any longer. He quickly tells Lassiter that the guy has a gun. Lassiter gets up and opens fire at the man as he takes out his weapon. The guy makes it out unharmed.

The chief has come to the bar to assess the situation. Shawn tells her that the guy did not come to the restaurant to rob it but to kill someone and that person was one of them.

Back at the police station Shawn’s theory is still getting knocked off as they assume it was just some low life robber. Henry comes running in to the department to make sure Shawn is okay because he has not been able to reach Shawn after he heard about the shooting. The chief asks everyone who was at the scene of the shooting to come aside. There she says the department is offering counseling to anyone who feels they need it. No one wants it. Jules and Lassie have found some evidence that may lead them to the location of the shooter and are on their way to check it out.

Shawn and Gus go back to the sport’s bar to see if they missed anything. As Gus goes back to the car Shawn notices the video camera on the wall. He tells Gus to freeze and looks through the camera’s feed. Then he tells Gus to move to the right a little and Gus disappears from the camera’s view. The guy knew exactly where to stand so that the camera would not pick him up. He is smarter than the junkie the police think he is. Juliet confirms that the guy was not at the motel. Lassie is going to take a ride around the area to make sure. Shawn is staging the crime scene using foods. Love his food choices by the way. Remembering that night, Shawn knows who the shooter was after.

Lassiter is driving in his car and his cell phone placed on the floor starts ringing. It’s all call from Shawn. Lassie bends down to get the phone just in time to avoid being shot in the head. He swerves his car off that road and crashes it into a fence. That shooter better watch out because Lassie just had his car fixed.

Back at the station Lassiter is unharmed but majorly pissed off. After Shawn is done gloating how it was him that saved Lassie’s life, the chief asks Lassiter if he knows anyone who would want to kill him. Lassie’s answer is that a lot of people want to kill him and he takes great pride in that. Then the chief tells Lassie that he is staying put in the department under guard until they find the shooter. Before they leave Shawn mocks Lassie “there’s a frozen yogurt stand outside if you want to get one, oh wait…you can’t”. Lassiter responds by hitting Shawn with a baseball mitt.

Juliet, Shawn, and Gus decide to look over potential shooters at the Psych office because Lassiter was being annoying at the department. There Juliet notices an elliptical machine says that by the looks of their bodies Gus is the one that uses it. Shawn feels insulted and says that in a month he will have an eight pack, possibly a nine pack. Gus says Shawn never uses it. Juliet offers to teach him some of the motivational techniques her trainer has taught her to exercise. Shawn says no thanks.

At the station Lassiter stealthily does some digging of his own while his guard steps out. He calls up the person that he believes is the shooter only to learn that he is already dead.

After spotting one of the case files, Shawn flashes back to an article in the newspaper about this criminal being recently released from prison. Gus and Shawn’s names are on the case file as consultants even though they did not work that case. Jules says that this criminal, Ivan Petrovich, is a drug dealer who was responsible to selling drugs to a young football player who died of a drug overdose.

The chief says that she remembers Ivan Petrovich and puts out an APB on him. Lassie, who was listening in, wants to be the one who brings in Petrovich. He is still angry that he could only get Petrovich on a weapons charge. Chief declines saying that this guy is hell bent on getting his revenge on the sole officer that put him away. Lassiter says he did not work that case alone, McNab was with him. McNab is off duty so the chief sends O’Hara to go over to his place to make sure that he is ok.

McNab is not answering his phone. McNab appears in a robe before Juliet goes into his house. He says he was in the shower. Jules informs him of the situation and before he goes back inside he wants to grab his mail. Immediately after he puts the key into the mail box it explodes sending him flying into his pool. McNab is alive and stable but it looks like there are two more people named on the police reports, Shawn and Gus.

Juliet gets Gus on the phone saying that they are potential targets and asks if he’s talked to Shawn. Gus rushes down the the Psych office only to find Shawn running out of breath on the elliptical. Shawn shows him a water bottle that says “If you heart rate falls below 150, YOU DIE” and points below at a blinking light. It’s a race against the clock for the cops to get there as Shawn is losing the energy to run any longer. Juliet finally arrives and when she sees the note says that she wrote it as a motivational note, her trainer taught her it. What about the blinking light? It’s just their portable phone that Shawn has misplaced. Shawn gets off the elliptical and collapses.

Shawn and Gus head down to the station still fearing their lives and freak out when sprinklers go on. McNab is back from the hospital and walking around on a crutch inside the station. Shawn says hi to him and when he turns around it shows that the bomb blew one of his eyebrows off. He also says he lost parts of three toes. Shawn gets some water because he is still a little dehydrated. The chief has put Lassie in charge of the investigation because he knows Petrovich more than any of them. After Lassie hands out a list of places Petrovich might be hiding Shawn says he has a vibe on a phony shoe repair business that Petrovich used as a front. Chief suggests Lassiter checks it out.

The place seems deserted until Shawn locates a secret room under the floor. They head into it and Lassie shoots at a rat and it looks like he hit Petrovich.

Shawn feels like the way the shooting went down was strange. While re-watching the interview, Shawn notices that Petrovich had a scar on his hand. The shooter did not. Jiles confirms, Petrovich had already been dead for two hours when they got there. Someone tied Petrovich up and forced drugs into him, the same drugs that the boy had overdosed on. Unfortunately, Lassie has been going around to reach out to members of the boy’s family all day and one of them is the killer.

Lassie meets with the boys father who pulls a gun on him. At the same time Shawn figures out that it is the anniversary of the son’s death, they would be at the cemetery.

Lassiter is surprised that it was the man the whole time. He apologizes that he could not get Petrovich put away longer, there was nothing he could do. The man explains his reasons, killing Petrovich and Lassiter is his way to bring balance back into his world. Before Mr. Salamachi can shoot Lassiter, Juliet arrives with Shawn and Gus. She has to put down her weapon and asks the guys if they have a weapon. Shawn checks his pocket and finds the cordless phone but no gun. He has a thought to throw the phone at the guys head and tries. He misses but his momentary distraction is enough time for Lassie to take him down.

Shawn still must get over his yips and has an appointment with his sport’s therapist. On his first try, Shawn throws a perfect strike. As Shawn rejoices his success, Gus tells him that sometimes the mental block moves to a different strength in an athlete’s game. To prove Gus wrong Shawn picks up the bat. Gus pitches the ball and Shawn misses every time. His yips are back.